Shay v. State

At the December 1955 Term of the Circuit Court of Warren County Edgar L. Shay was indicted for the crime of forcible rape. The defendant’s motion for a change of venue was sustained, and the venue was changed to the Circuit Court of Jefferson County. The trial was held, pursuant thereto, and from the verdict of guilty, which fixed the punishment at life imprisonment in the state penitentiary, and the judgment thereon, Shay appealed.

The evidence for the State showed that, on Saturday night, August 27, 1955, Miss Betty Jane Morace, a nineteen year old student nurse in a hospital at Vicksburg,…